The Fun Part

We have arrived at the fun part of gardening: harvesting!

This is a picture of what we've picked just since Saturday:

We've got basil and oregano for the pasta I made tonight, tomatoes galore, purple potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, and a red pepper. There are actually a lot more Yukon gold potatoes under there than the picture shows. Time for some potato salad!

So I know that my last gardening post was all about the pests and diseases affecting my plants, but for some reason each issue has pretty much gone away or proved itself innocuous. The tomatoes either responded well to my seaweed treatment or didn't have a significant problem, after all, because they are producing away. We haven't had any more caterpillars eating their way through my tomatoes, and all the varmints have been kept out by . . .

. . . the fantastic cage that Nathan built!
Here's a picture of the main plot as of last week.
The structure has netting hung all around it and a little netting door so that it keeps the squirrels, etc., from eating my nearly-ripe tomatoes. It is working like a charm. Yay Nathan!

Have I shown you the herb plot? We've got rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage. (The basil, parsley, and cilantro are in the main garden area.) I love having herbs on hand.

This is a cherry tomato plant I grew from seed. I didn't have a place for it, so I stuck it in this pot, knowing full well that the pot was too small. It is about at the point when I need to plant it in something bigger, but I don't have anything bigger, so I might just stick it in the overgrown bed that has received some of our other plants and see how it goes.

Here's the zucchini in that bed. It's actually doing quite well. It isn't as big as the plants in the main garden since it doesn't get as much sun, but it's quite healthy.

And here's the cucumber in the same area. You can see that it has started climbing the chain link fence. It's had a few blossoms, so I know that some sweet little cucumbers are starting to form!

This is an heirloom tomato seedling that I transplanted into this yogurt container so that the roots could grow a bit more before finding a place to plant it (I haven't figured out where yet, of course). The problem with it being in this container is that it is just a beacon calling out to Jane. She loves to get it, dig around in the dirt, eat some of the dirt, and take the poor seedling out. She's done this at least twice. I am surprised and happy the poor plant has survived such treatment.

The zucchini in the garden plot is doing well. Yes, some of the leaves are still silver, but since the plant is healthy otherwise, I've decided not to worry about it. My gardening friends and I have speculated about it: could it be the variety? the lack of rain (therefore the additives in the city's water such as chlorine making a difference)? Who knows? I'm just not going to fret about it anymore, especially since I have two big old blossoms on my plants and many more coming. Yay zucchini!

Our carrots are coming along--the ones that survived. A lot of the seedlings just didn't make it, but about four or five are chugging along. I heard that they do better in the spring and fall here; maybe they aren't really meant for the heat.

A yellow wax bean, turning yellow!

And some tiny beans forming (sorry for the blurry picture). Not having grown up gardening, a discovery like finding out that the beans I eat start out so tiny is really fun.

Yum!